IMOS - AusCPR: Phytoplankton Colour Index for Australian Waters

A long-term plankton baseline for Australian waters, collected by the CSIRO and Australian Antarctic Division. The dataset measures phytoplankton communities as a guide to ocean health and supports aims like mapping biodiversity and detecting harmful algal blooms. Data is available via the AODN portal and is interoperable with other national and international programs through the IMOS Infrastructure.

Use Cases

• Modeling plankton biodiversity and distribution changes based on the long-term baseline mentioned in the description
• Developing fisheries management indices based on plankton community data
• Detecting and tracking harmful algal blooms based on phytoplankton colour index measurements
• Validating satellite remote sensing data for ocean color based on in-situ plankton observations

Strengths

• Data collection is a joint project of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), indicating institutional authority
• Analysis follows a published methodology (Richardson et al 2006)
• Data storage and access is planned to be interoperable with other national and international programs

Limitations

• This dataset has been superseded by a newer collection, as noted in the description
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), Ships of Opportunity facility, via the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN)

Collection Method

Samples collected via Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey, analyzed as per Richardson et al 2006

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:20:40.497840; freshness should be verified as the dataset is noted as superseded.

Geography

Australian waters